Conventionally, a substrate liquid processing apparatus is used to perform a cleaning process or an etching process to a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer or a liquid crystal substrate by a cleaning agent or an etching agent when manufacturing a semiconductor component or a flat panel display.
In the substrate liquid processing apparatus, a substrate processed by the apparatus or members included in the apparatus may be electrostatically charged due to various reasons such as the charge of a processing liquid or the friction of moving parts.
Additionally, when the substrate or the members are charged with electricity, an electrostatic breakdown may occur at the circuit-forming surface of the substrate (a surface at which electronic elements, such as a transistor or a diode, or a wiring connecting them is formed) when the electric charge is discharged.
Thus, in the conventional substrate liquid processing apparatus, a chuck made of a conductive material is provided adjacent to the peripheral edge of the substrate to maintain the substrate during the liquid processing, and the charged electricity on the substrate is emitted through the conductive chuck. See, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2004-356593.
As the conventional substrate liquid processing apparatus is configured to emit the electric charge on the substrate by the chuck that maintains the substrate, the electric charge at the surface layer of the substrate may partially be discharged to outside. However, the electric charge at the inside of the substrate may not be discharged effectively to the outside of the substrate. As a result, there is a concern that an electrostatic breakdown may occur at the circuit-forming surface of the substrate when the circuit-forming surface of the substrate is processed with a chemical liquid and remaining electric charges are discharged.